Fox plans dating game show from 'Idol' team -- EXCLUSIVE

Fox is jumping back in the game show business with an ego-bruising format that puts singles looking for love to the test.

The network is casting for a stateside version of the UK hit Take Me Out (video clip below).

Here’s the pitch: A single man tries to impress a panel of 30 single women who each control a lighted podium. One by one, the women switch off their lights if they lose interest. If the man survives the initial rounds and avoids a “blackout,” the scenario changes – the remaining women compete for him until only one remains.

There are serialized aspects to the show which make it different than most game show formats too. The female panelists remain the same every week, so viewers get to know their tastes and personalities over the course of a season. Winning couples also go on dates, which are shown in later episodes. So it’s sort of like The Bachelor: Speed Dating Edition. Or The Dating Game meets Deal or No Deal. Or Singled Out on steroids.

Sources say Fox is near a deal with American Idol producer FremantleMedia North America for a Take Me Out series order and plans a summer launch. Both companies declined to comment.

Here’s a clip from the UK version (which debuted two years ago and is based on the Australian series Taken Out) where a contestant largely impresses the panel. Looks and feels like a Fox game show, huh?

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Fox has had success with game shows in the past like Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader and Don’t Forget the Lyrics, though the network’s last two efforts – Million Dollar Money Drop and Moment of Truth – were short lived. Money Drop, which basically focused on contestants losing money, and Truth, where contestants answered painful questions about their past, had a streak of guilty-pleasure Feel-Bad TV to them. Take Me Out has some wince-inducing moments (see below), yet it remains upbeat like Fox’s previous hits.

Here’s a poor Scottish bloke on the UK version who didn’t impress the panel …